Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

the coda of "no reason" really takes it to the next level. while "spud infinity" is good but absolutely a minute too long

I think “Spud Infinity” is an amazing song… that juxtaposition of the earthy and the abstract, right there in the title, is beautifully realized in the lyric.

I'm at a loss on how to describe/characterize these new songs... they're "cosmic Americana" in a certain way, but not in a way that usually fits that definition (and I wouldn't necessarily RIYL them along those lines). They're intense, joyful, lucid meditations on nature, time, and reality; using Americana as a vehicle, but not at all contstrained by what that term normally entails.

is that to suggest this will be their “Green”?

― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Thursday, December 16, 2021 bookmarkflaglink

yes, possibly!

this is the best this band has ever sounded, to me

(besides "Not")

TE >>> Not imo

i've listened to "little things" so many times. now when i'm having a beer i like to sing "drinking a beeeeer" to myself

Haha, me too :)

Yeah, maybe ... TE > Not ... maybe Little Things, too. i didn't necessarily mean forever, just that i've listened to Not a thousand times and these haven't had a chance to overtake it yet.

i didn't say that, but i was thinking it ... or something

collectively, though, i love these songs

“Spud Infinity” reminds me of Michael Hurley. Fantastic.

"little things", "time escaping" & "no reason" all > "not", as good as "not" is

I was just forwarded this (haven't read it yet): https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/big-thief-new-album-adrianne-lenker-interview-1272814/

it's a good read, most interesting tidbits are that "wake me up to drive" is "drum-machine pop" (which makes sense actually revisiting the live version) & they directly suggest that there could be another album's worth of material to be released from the dragon sessions

!!

they were already hinting that it was a possibility in a previous interview (45 songs were recorded so it could even be another double), just a bit more here

Through it all, the band held on to a firm internal sense of self. “We all have our own Big Thief-i-ness barometers,” says Krivchenia. “We did some stuff that, listening back to it, we were like, ‘Wow, people would flip if they heard this… but it’s not Big Thief-y.'”

Aw… don’t do me like that, man

japanese version has two bonus tracks, "dragon new warm mountain i believe in you (tucson version)" and "light is as is". the tucson sessions were where they recorded the album's rootsier material so i imagine it'll be quite a different take on "dragon"

I am very much hoping that 2022 is the year I get to see Big Thief live. None of the currently announced dates are anywhere near me, but maybe there will be more ...

Through it all, the band held on to a firm internal sense of self. “We all have our own Big Thief-i-ness barometers,” says Krivchenia. “We did some stuff that, listening back to it, we were like, ‘Wow, people would flip if they heard this… but it’s not Big Thief-y.'”

Aw… don’t do me like that, man

― i woke up alarmed (morrisp), Friday, January 7, 2022 12:27 AM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is such an important part of being a good band

"Simulation Swarm" is out now. Sounds a little like something off U.F.O.F., with a country turn in the chorus.

so good, love the fretless bass

DRINKING A BEEEEEEEEEER

I stopped listening to the pre-release tracks, I'm just ready to luxuriate in the whole thing.

this album is going to be incredible and i am already annoyed at how it will inevitably renew the big thief backlash

not so sure - i'm someone who was not a very big Big Thief fan (i found the songs sort of muddy and land-locked) but almost everything in the past year has been extraordinary, full of grace and lift, and it's turned me from backlasher into fan

ive been listening to the pre release tracks as a mini album of sorts, after ignoring the stuff for nearly all of 2021. flows nicely, tho nearly every track they’ve released since “little things” has been better than that one

i think that “spud infinity” is my favorite, big old weird america feeling going on

I'm extremely ready for this album to be of varying quality, like all their albums ;)

is there a big thief backlash? i don't want to meet these people irl

The little woodwind & gtr jam at the end of "No Reason" is such hot sh1t... I just love it

exact same sitch as sean gramophone for me.

there will be a backlash, but it'll be dwarfed by the "album of the year / america's best band" hype, i bet.

I thought the backlash happened already (that NYT editor who called them "emperor's new clothes" or whatever)

I wish you could do backlashes where you were like 'yeah they're pretty good but there's quite a few bands I prefer', but the Discourse doesn't like that sort of equivocation, they either have to be The Best or Overrated Nonsense

I will say this: much as I've enjoyed the other preview songs so far, I just don't get what's good about Little Things at all

I wish you could do backlashes where you were like 'yeah they're pretty good but there's quite a few bands I prefer',

thats not a backlash that's you.

I just don't get what's good about Little Things at all

It sounds like listening to your Walkman on a warm summer night in 1989, watching the stars come out...

good description, i think i like it now!

it's this wild shifting shimmering thing & their playing is incredible, really highlights their chemistry as a band. it's also just really distinct & fresh, what else out there actually sounds like this? it's interesting because it's really one of their least singer-songwritery tunes, much more of a free-flowing jam where the vocals weave in and out in the same way as the lead guitar. has anyone figured out what's actually going on with the time signature yet

i wasn't on board with them (i'd heard capacity and wasn't moved though i had enjoyed abysskiss a little) until i was blown away by u.f.o.f. and returning to capacity since then made it really open up for me.

Through it all, the band held on to a firm internal sense of self. “We all have our own Big Thief-i-ness barometers,” says Krivchenia. “We did some stuff that, listening back to it, we were like, ‘Wow, people would flip if they heard this… but it’s not Big Thief-y.'”

Isn't this what b-sides are for?

Good point!

Looking forward to "Big Thief Gets Weird."

In the meantime I'm guessing this next one will be their strongest record by far.

reports from those who've got the album early are that the studio version of "dragon" is a mellow folk tune like adrianne's solo version and not the awesome rock version they've been playing live

hope the rock version is the jp bonus track then

I heard some folks' preorders are arriving already

With this album, Big Thief stand to become my second-favourite Wilco, ahead of Califone

You mentioned that in another thread; I don’t really hear a Wilco connection

I think Time Escaping is when I realised they could pull off the 'art Americana' thing; it reminded me of Art Of Almost a bit. Here's to them overriding their Big Thiefiness barometers more in future

they're better at being "the american radiohead" than wilco ever were

folk version of the title track is absolutely gorgeous but i still hope we get a studio version of the live version

one of the prettiest things they've ever done

yeah this is clearly their best album but also surprisingly cohesive, it's not really a wildly eclectic double album like it seemed like it was shaping up to be. it's all firmly within the folk/country/dreamy rock vibe they'd established even if they get creative with the arrangements. i get why they didn't put the rock "dragon" on here, it would have been quite a departure from that vibe.

Another good one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t34LAtkD_Vs

full recording of "hand through table"

According to setlist.fm they have played 14 new tracks on this summer tour so far, surely this must mean the new album is coming soon, right? Right?

they're probably recording sometime in the next two months, their last tour date is later this week and adrianne doesn't go back on tour until november. it doesn't seem like they've recorded an album yet, the arrangements for the new material have been shifting around a bit, they're still figuring them out.

on top of the 14 new songs they've played live this year, there's another 10 unreleased songs that adrianne's played live this year solo, and a bunch more they were playing on tour in 2022/2023.

not to mention the supposed other double album's worth of material recorded during the dragon sessions

i'm not sure if they're going to release that but they said last year it was still a possibility they'd put it out as a stopgap release

they're finally recording at the moment and there's a tiny snippet of a song here: https://www.instagram.com/bigthiefmusic/reel/DFYzteKRb2c/

word is they've brought in laraaji to play on the new album too

I never got into this album, but I'm obsessed with 'Blurred View' after watching this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZZB4wy91Lc

Would that the whole album sounded like this.

https://store.bigthief.net/collections/featured/products/big170002-passional-relations-ep-digital-download

new outtakes ep as a la fires benefit, mostly from the dwnmibiy sessions

these outtakes are lovely to hear, but still it's pretty easy to understand why none made an album

"imagination" is the best thing here just for the feedback section in the middle

"light as light" was already released as "light is as is" on the japanese release of dnwmibiy, maybe they forgot about that lol?

the vocal production "waiting on blue" combined with the organ is really nice

the full band of "zombie girl" is nice but it's not better than the solo version on songs, the band don't really manage to add much to it

"shadow too" seems to be a pre-ufof/two hands demo (they played it live a few times in 2018)

Feels like a lifetime since New Warm Dragon came out

Change / Because I Got High bootleg

sounds like we might be getting new album news next week

it turned out that was just the (all-time great) adrianne lenker live album, but it looks like "incomprehensible" might be the first single from the big thief album

https://www.stereogum.com/2310001/big-thief-tease-new-music-with-incomprehensible-posters-in-nyc/news/

album announcement & presumably "incomprehensible" are coming tomorrow

https://i.imgur.com/NNpyJYl.png

this might be the cover

the title might be 'double infinity'

Tomorrow is the announcement of our new album!!! This photograph was taken by the extraordinary Genesis Báez pic.twitter.com/TUOkFai9Se

— Big Thief (@bigthiefmusic) June 2, 2025

Oh my!

yeah baby

the title might be 'double infinity'

no spud in the photo is kind of a letdown

potato times potato equals lime everyone knows that

i'm assuming the lime is a reference to "no fear" which goes "there is no time, round like a lime, destiny"